Shifang

Shifang is a county-level city in Sichuan, China under the municipal administration of Deyang. It is located about 50 km from Chengdu. It has an area of 863 km? and a population of 430,000 in 2004.

The city had had a history of 2,209 years when it suffered heavy damages during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

History and culture

The first recorded administrative creation in the current location of Shifang was a tiny kingdom named Zhifang in 201 BC, roughly in parallel with the foundation of the Western Han dynasty by . conquered the area in 111 BC and placed it under Han rule. In 4 A.D., Wang Mang who briefly seized power changed Zhifang to Meixin ( county. Emperor Guangwu of Han changed Meixin to ''Zhifang'' county in 25 A.D.

The current name ''Shifang'' was first adopted in 221 AD during Shu Han. During the reign of , Shifang was first renamed Fangting or Fangning in 557, and later merged into Luo county somewhere between 566 and 576. It was not until the foundation of Tang dynasty when Shifang was reconstituted as a county in 619.

During the reign of the Former Shu kingdom, Shifang became Tongji county in 912, but then named back to Shifang county in 919.

Shifang county had since been maintained until 1995, when the People's Republic of China changed its status to a county level city, delegated to the municipality of Deyang.

Claim to Yu the Great

Amongst tourism and commercial promotions, Shifang made a late entry into the steamed claim war for Yu the Great's birthplace.
Although this claim is probably more commercial than historical, Shifang was part of ''West Qiang'' that some ancient records accredited as Yu's birthplace, just like the other three locations in Sichuan, namely , , and , that raised similar claims.
Many places in other parts of China have made similar claims.

Other cultural claims

Li Bing（李冰,306 BCE – 251 BCE）,a famous water conservancy expert in Qin Dynasty, once worked in water-control and then passed away there. In addition many historians believe that Li Bing was born in Shifang .Mazu Daoyi , a master of the Chinese Ch'an Buddhist lineage,was born in Mazu Town of Shifang.

Great Sichuan Earthquake

Also like the other three counties and towns claiming to be the birthplace of Yu the Great, Shifang is one of the most severely hitted cities following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake with at least 5924 death tolls .13 school buildings totally collapsed in Hongbai Town,Yinghua Town,Luoshui Town, Jiandi Town, Bajiao Town etc., and dozens of schools impaired with 550 students and 12 teachers as death tolls..

Economy

Shifang City consecutively maintained the second place of the "top ten counties" of Sichuan Provincefrom 1995 to 2007，and its GDP was 12.7 billion RMB in 2007 .It was rated as one of the "100 Most Rewarding to Investment small and medium-sized city of China". Besides, Shifang was named as "Township of the Chinese Mineral Water" and "Township of the Chinese Cigar".Shifang City was also considered "City of Phosphorite" because of rich phosphate rock and thriving phosphate chemical there.It has a nickname of "Bright Pearl of West Sichuan".

Reconstruction

Beijing Municipality will do coordinated support with Shifang City , and consider to assist a Capital Industry Park of 10 km? in Luoshui Town . The road which will link the Chengdu-Mianyang Expressway and Shifang City will be completed in 2008. In addition, a new Chengdu-Shifang-Mianyang Expressway and the Chengdu-Lanzhou High-speed Railway, which will pass through Shifang, are scheduled to complete around 2011,and will make it possible to travel from Chengdu to Shifang in 30 minutes. With the leadership of Chinese government and support of international community, the government of Shifang City plans to complete reconstruction until 2011, make GDP recover to same of 2007 until 2013, and make the city to be a modernized city until 2018.

Tourism

Places of Interest

YingHua Mountain
Western Suprise Happy Hollow
LuoHan Temple
Li Bing Cenotaph
LongJu Temple

Speciality

*Shifang Salted Duck
*Hongbai Dried Beancurd
*Shifang Rice-noodle

Administrative divisions

Shifang has 2 and 14 .

*Subdistricts
**Fangting
**Zaojiao
*Towns:
**Yuanshi
**Huilan
**Luoshui
**Hefeng
**Shuangsheng
**Mazu
**Yinfeng
**Majing
**Yinghua
**Nanquan
**Jiandi
**Hongbai
**Bajiao
**Shigu